Tag Archives: Parent Involvement

I want to share examples of the flyer, invitation, and exit tickets I will be using for my Character Breakfast Club. I can’t wait to hold my first one in the fall. I’ll be sure to update everyone on how things turn out along with any lessons learned.

I made a sample flyer using the Bullying topic I talked about in my first Character Breakfast Club Post. I will change my flyer each time to tell specifically about the topic of each breakfast club. If you would like a copy of this form in Publisher in order to make it your own, just email me through my contact page and I will send one to you. ( I can only post PDF documents.)

I ordered my Character Breakfast Club invitations from Vista Print. I’m looking forward to receiving them soon. Here are images of the front and back of the invitation. They are pretty basic as any extra information will have already been included on the flyer sent home with students. If you don’t have time to write each invitation, you can always create labels with the information and attach them to the back of the cards.

I also created a very simple exit ticket. In order to determine how things are going, you’ll want to know if your guests enjoyed the breakfast club, what activity they liked best, and if they would attend another one. There is also an area at the bottom for comments or suggestions. Have these available about ten minutes before the conclusion of the event. You can also have special stickers on hand for the students as they return them. I’m thinking about making some that say “Ask me about the Character Breakfast Club!” or “I went to the Character Breakfast Club today!”

I am super excited about including the Character Breakfast Club in my school counseling program. I am tossing around ideas in regard to how I will invite families. I am thinking about focusing on one or two classrooms to start in order to gauge the response. If the response is good, I will offer more than one session in order to accommodate families. My goal is to host one breakfast club for each grade level this year. However, response will dictate how things go. I’ll keep you informed!

Stick around! You can follow Savvy School Counselor with free email updates! As always, I’d love to hear from you! Did I miss anything? Do you have any suggestions for the flyer and/or the exit ticket?

Before I was a school counselor, I taught second grade for thirteen years. One thing I found very successful for parent involvement was hosting a Reader’s Breakfast Club. These breakfasts were held once each grading period. Parents were invited to bring breakfast from home or their favorite take-out restaurant and come to my classroom. During their stay, they would eat breakfast with their children and read together. The students really enjoyed it, and we always had a great turn out.

As a school counselor, you can host a similar event called the Character Breakfast Club. This club offers another way to infuse character education into your school counseling program. How often you hold your breakfast club will depend on your individual school, but once per grading period is a great starting point. You can eventually hold it once per month if your schedule allows. Character Breakfast Club can be held before school and does not interfere with the school day.

Decide on the number of families you can accommodate, and make that number clear on your flyer. The number will be determined by your breakfast club location and supplies available. Once you receive the allotted number of R.S.V.P.’s, you can send the official invitation. You can make your Character Breakfast Club grade level specific, or you can supply a range of activities in order to leave it open to all. You can also group your clubs K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. The school where I work tends to have a higher parental involvement in the lower grades, so combining K-1 is difficult. Once you get a feel for the demand at your school, you can better assess how to schedule each breakfast.

Character Breakfast Club Activities

You will need to schedule 45-60 minutes for your Character Breakfast Club. This will allow time for families to eat their breakfast for the first 15-20 minutes and leave another 30-40 minutes for the character activities. These activities may include BINGO games, crafts, and small group activities centered around the topic. For example: One topic I will address is Bullying. I have the Bully-Buster Bingo game from Mar*co which shares several strategies children can use when dealing with a bully. I also have the activity guide for Bullies are a Pain in the Brain. This guide has a great true/false type activity about the characteristics of a bully that families can complete together. Students can also make special buttons pledging to take a stand against bullying. You can have crayons and stickers available for them to decorate their button inserts. This will give them something to take with them to remember all they did at the Character Breakfast Club.

Mar*co Products has a lot of BINGO gamesto choose from including Character Education BINGO, Managing Anger BINGO, and Manners BINGO just to name a few. They also sell Responsibility and Respect Bingo which I have and love to use. These are additional topics you can use for your breakfast clubs. It’s not difficult to find a couple of fun character education activities to keep your participants busy and enjoying some great family time. Additionally, you’ll have excited kids ready to start their school day on a positive note!

One last thing: Don’t forget to have an exit ticket at the end of each breakfast club. It should be simple and easy to complete. This will help you determine what is going well along with what you can do to improve the effectiveness of your event.

Stick around! I’ll share more about the Character Breakfast Club in a future post. I will include a sample flyer, invitation, and exit ticket.

You can follow Savvy School Counselor with free email updates. As always, I’d love to hear from you! Is the Character Breakfast Club something you might consider?